Doug McCallum vows to rebuild Surrey's Cloverdale horse racetrack and barns | Daily Hive

Doug McCallum vows to rebuild the horse racetrack and barns at Surrey's Cloverdale Fairgrounds

Fraser Downs at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds in Surrey. (BC Racebook)

Doug McCallum is promising to rebuild the demolished horse barns and racing oval at Surrey’s Cloverdale Fairgrounds, with a goal of bringing harness racing back by Fall 2027.

The Safe Surrey Coalition mayoral candidate announced the commitment today, making it clear that he would pursue the reconstruction of the facilities and establish a new long-term horseracing lease if elected with a majority on Surrey City Council. The civic election day is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026 — just one week before the provincial general election on Saturday, Oct. 24.

“My promise to Cloverdale is simple. The barns go back up, the horses come home, and nobody at City Hall ever bulldozes over this community again without asking it first,” said McCallum.

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The proposal would reverse the closure of Fraser Downs, which ended nearly five decades of harness racing at the fairgrounds. The potential cost of rebuilding the facilities was not included.

Operator Great Canadian Entertainment announced the racetrack’s immediate closure in August 2025, after the City of Surrey terminated the lease for the racetrack, horse stables, and associated facilities.

Great Canadian’s Elements Casino, located directly below the grandstands of the racetrack, was excluded from the lease termination, allowing casino operations to continue.

The racecourse’s barns were demolished at the end of 2025. In March 2026, Great Canadian announced it had reached an agreement to sell their casino business and lease at the fairgrounds to the Semiahmoo First Nation’s wholly-owned company, SE-MI-AH-MU Development Corporation.

Months earlier, in December 2025, Great Canadian also similarly permanently ended the long-running horseracing tradition at Hastings Racecourse at Vancouver’s Hastings Park.

McCallum, who previously served as Surrey’s mayor from 1996 to 2005 and again from 2018 to 2022, was a CEO of Harness Racing BC. He accused Locke and her Surrey Connect party of dismantling an important part of Cloverdale’s identity without consulting with the horserace community.

Citing Harness Racing BC, his campaign said the closure affected over 200 members and between 75 and 100 people who worked at the racetrack each season. The campaign also said more than 6,000 people signed a petition opposing the closure.

Beyond rebuilding the horseracing facilities, McCallum is proposing a bylaw requiring a public vote before any portion of the fairgrounds could be sold or redeveloped. He said the site should continue serving the Cloverdale Rodeo, Country Fair, Agriplex and horse racing, while promising to preserve both the fairgrounds and Old Cloverdale’s heritage.

McCallum also pledged to cancel Locke’s proposed “vanity pet project” for the site. Although his announcement did not describe Locke’s project, in May 2026 she announced her vision of building a new convention centre at the fairgrounds with up to 200,000 sq. ft. of meeting and exhibition space. Previous announcements by Locke also described potentially introducing mixed-use developments with residential, commercial, and entertainment uses, creating a new core for the emerging Cloverdale Town Centre.

Meanwhile, the harness racing activities previously located at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds have since found a new location at Desert Park Raceway in Osoyoos in the B.C. interior.

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